Friday, June 04, 2010

Dangerous Trade: About the Show Dealing in Tigers

Tune into Planet Green at 10 pm on June 6th (in the USA) to follow the Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA) as they protect the natural world from environmental crime and abuse.

Working undercover to expose international environmental crime—illegal wildlife trading, illegal logging and trade in timber species, and the worldwide trade in ozone depleting substances—EIA has directly brought about changes in international laws and the policies of governments, saving the lives of millions of rare and endangered animals and putting a stop to the devastating effects of environmental criminals. The work they with their Indian colleagues at the Wildlife Protection Society of India, for example, helped to piece together the tiger skin trail in 2004 and 2005—which contributed to major changes in the patterns of consumption.

As the tiger team leader Debbie Banks puts it, the primary message of the show is: "this isn’t rocket science... it would be very straightforward to break the back of this illegal trade. If a small NGO with limited resources can uncover such a vast amount of information in a short space of time, then why can’t the Chinese authorities? If only they would apply the resources, they could make a serious dent in the criminal networks that control this trade."

At the start of Dangerous Trade and the tiger trade investigation, the Environmental Investigation Agency finds that people were being forced by Chinese officials to wear skins at traditional festivals to undermine the Dalai Lama’s appeal in 2006 to respect the tiger, which led to Tibetans burning all their big cat skins. Additional information indicated that people were still trading skins... Find out what EIA?s learns about who is trafficking skins into China and how. Cameras follow the surveillance team as it tracks the EIA undercover operatives—watch the show and you'll learn in suspense!